DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 8, 2014
SMOKE Northwestern US: Several large fires in the Pacific Northwest (including wildfires in California, Oregon, and Idaho, but mainly the Happy Camp and July complexes in northern California) are producing a broad area of smoke. The smoke covers far northwest California, all but southeast Oregon, the southern portion of Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana. The smoke has also moved off the coast into the Pacific off the coast of northern California and Oregon. Light smoke may also extend further down the California coast toward the Channel Islands. Moderate to dense smoke covered a broad swath from over the fire complexes in northern California into western and northern Oregon and reaching the border of southeast Washington and Idaho. Moderate smoke also extends off the Oregon coast into the Pacific. Central California: A fire in Mariposa county in the central Sierra Nevada mountains exploded in growth today and has generated an expansive plume of moderate to dense smoke that extended to the north northeast of the fire into west central Nevada by sunset. DUST Oregon A small plume of light blowing dust was observed this evening originating from Summer Lake in south central Oregon and moving to the east. UNKNOWN AEROSOL Southern Plains An unknown aerosol was detected over the northern Texas Panhandle and moving to the north across the Oklahoma Panhandle into western Kansas in late afternoon and evening. No fires were observed in the area (that would suggest smoke) and surface winds were not strong (that would suggest blowing dust). Ruminski THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/land/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov